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Andurien V - more commonly referred to simply as Andurien - is the fifth planet in the Andurien system[2] and has served as the capital world of both the Andurien Commonality[6] and the Duchy of Andurien as well as being home to a number of defense industries. Andurien has two moons named Betic and Mulhacen.[2]

Settled before the Age of War, Andurien was one of the worlds within the Sian Commonality when the Capellan Confederation came into being in 2367.[7] Andurien wouldn't remain a Capellan world for long, though; Allan Marik had been waging a war since 2366 to bring various worlds within the Capellan Zone into the Free Worlds League, and although the war ended in 2369 several Capellan worlds were annexed, including Andurien.[9]ChancellorFranco Liao was forced to trade worlds for time as he unified the various disparate Capellan Zone nations into the Capellan Confederation, but despite this Andurien and several other worlds on the anti-spinward border of the Confederation would be contested for a decade, changing hands numerous times.[10] This would prove to be just the beginning of decades or even centuries of warfare with Andurien as the focus.[9]

The Free Worlds League and the Capellan Confederation fought no less than three wars over Andurien and surrounding systems during the Age of War] the peace treaty signed in 2556 between the League and the Confederation officially ended the Third Andurien War by placing Andurien within the borders of the Confederation, and paved the way for the League and the Confederation to sign the Treaty of Geneva, the document that formed a tripartite political and economic agreement between the League, the Confederation and the Terran Hegemony, laying the foundations for the future Star League. The beginning and the end of the Age of War are both commonly marked by wars for Andurien; while the Age of War ended with the peace treaty in 2556, the Age of War also began with a war for Andurien - the First Andurien War, launched by Kurnath Liao in 2398 as he attempted to wrest control of Andurien from the Free Worlds League.[11]

The First Andurien War lasted from Kurnath Liao's declaration of war in 2398 until 2404, when Chancellor Aleisha Liao proposed a peace treaty that would see the various Andurien worlds remain under Free Worlds League control for ten years, to be followed by a referendum that would see the inhabitants of the various worlds decide for themselves which nation to join.[11]

Andurien had nearly changed hands during the tenure of Simone Marik, as part of a daring venture to try and tie House Marik and House Liao together; after several attempts to create marriages between the two Houses failed, Simone suggested to Chancellor Ursula Liao that the coveted Andurien worlds could be traded to the Confederation in exchange for Capellan support for a daring invasion of the Terran Hegemony. Ursula Liao rejected the plan,[12] and in 2528 war erupted between the Confederation and the League over Andurien for a second time. The Second Andurien War ultimately engulfed almost the entire League/Confederation border in three years of violence, with the border constantly changing and outnumbered Marik units beating back numerous assaults. In 2531Director-GeneralIan Cameron managed to broker a peace between Captain-GeneralAlbert Marik and Chancellor Mica Liao that reaffirmed the result of the First Andurien War and resolved a number of border disputes in what became known as the Treaty of New Delos, one of the most comprehensive accords between the League and the Confederation.[13]

Despite the Treaty of New Delos war broke out again between the League and the Confederation over Andurien in 2551; the Third Andurien War lasted five years, and once again ended with a treaty negotiated by Ian Cameron. The settlement negotiated by Cameron between Captain-General Albert Marik and Chancellor Terrence Liao in 2556 ended the Third Andurien War and paved the way for the formation of the Star League.[14]

In the buildup to the Reunification War the Star League Defense Force began assembling SLDF Task Force Canopus, the large military formation consisting of SLDF and Free Worlds League Military units which it was planned would be responsible for annexing the Magistracy of Canopus once war between the Star League and the Magistracy became inevitable. It was determined that Andurien had the best infrastructure and communications for the SLDF operation to conquer the Magistracy, and it was originally intended that Andurien would be the site of the Task Force headquarters. However, ChancellorUrsula Liao of the Capellan Confederation refused to allow the presence of a Free Worlds League Captain-General - Marion Marik was the commanding officer of the task force - or any FWLM units on Andurien. Even if the units were operating under the auspices of the SLDF, the perception was that their very presence was an attempt to undermine the agreement that had ended the Third Andurien War. Ursula Liao refused to budge from her position and as a result the Task Force HQ had to instead be established on the world of Cole Harbour, delaying the operation.[15]

Andurien was one of some fifty-one heavily contested worlds to have been placed under Terran Hegemony authority as a jointly-administered world during the Age of War or Star League era. During the First Succession War Andurien once more became a flashpoint between the Free Worlds League and Capellan Confederation.[16] In 2783 Capellan "security forces" arrived on Andurien and the nearby world of Claybrooke, effectively annexing the planet.[17] Captain-General Kenyon Marik launched an invasion of the Capellan Confederation in 2787, targeting worlds in a corridor leading towards Sarna; the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces resisted and launched counterattacks for the next two years, blockading captured worlds, until the CCAF took heavy losses in the Calloway VI system. The attack on Calloway VI had been ordered by Chancellor Barbara Liao but had been anticipated by Kenyon Marik, who had deployed contingents from the Stewart Dragoons and Fusiliers of Oriente to patrol in the system for just such an attack; the losses forced the CCAF onto the defensive, and led to Kenyon opening a second front against the Confederation. That front was a direct invasion of the Andurien worlds, beginning with Andurien itself; Ingonish fell next, and by 2793 the FWLM had also captured Ryerson before a Capellan counterattack forced Kenyon to concentrate on holding his gains.[18]

During a lull in the conflict in 2863 that presaged the eventual armistice Captain-General Philippa Marik - who had assumed the title after the death of her brother Gerald in 2861 - came under increasing pressure to disband part of the Free Worlds League Military to allow funding to be redirected to reconstruct the League's damaged industrial base, and to relinquish the powers available to her under Resolution 288. Philippa resisted both calls, but did dispatch some of her surviving enclaves of scientists to Andurien to help rebuild the industrial base there, as well as to the worlds of Danais, Rochelle and Ryerson. Andurien - like Danais and Ryerson - underwent a remarkable level of recovery as a result, and would remain an economically viable world into the thirty-first century entirely because of the assistance received.[19]

On the 25th of April 3075 Naomi Centrella-Liao visited Andurien as an envoy of both the Magistracy of Canopus and the Capellan Confederation. The tense visit involved both reminders of the shared history between Canopus, Andurien and House Liao, but also some pointed warnings against the Duchy of Andurien pursuing "ambitions of the past." The visit was ultimately successful, with Naomi leaving Andurien on the 1st of May with a signed non-aggression pact covering all three states.[20][21]